


Change that has been coming

by Liekinloimu



Category: Elenium/Tamuli Series - David & Leigh Eddings
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 02:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liekinloimu/pseuds/Liekinloimu
Summary: Vanion finally admits his feelings to Sephrenia.
Relationships: Sephrenia/Vanion
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Change that has been coming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aworldinside](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aworldinside/gifts).



Vanion raised his fist to knock at the door, but then lowered it abruptly. Maybe this was not the best time? He hated this indecisiveness, it was not a characteristic in himself he was used to dealing with. He had been the head of the Pandion Order for years, and his whole life had been based on making decisions and knowing why he had made them. However, that was when he knew where everyone stood. He was the Preceptor. Sephrenia was their Styric instructor.

  
Now – technically he was still a Knight. Maybe? There was no such thing as an ex-Knight, you were a Church Knight until the day you died. Problem here, of course, was the fact that he had technically died. Did dying remove one of the knighthood? And Sephrenia was not acting as an instructor for the Order anymore, but she was still a Styric and the High-Priestess of Aphrael of all things. Vanion was an Elene, and Sephrenia had known him since he had been a gangling novice. She still could sometimes make him feel like that poor novice, struggling with his conscience for the developing, extremely forbidden feelings for his much older teacher.

  
He had been living with those feelings for long enough to forgive himself for them some time ago. Or maybe he just had ceased caring? What helped was knowing that at least Aphrael approved of his feelings for her priestess. But did Sephrenia approve of them? Did she approve of her own feelings? Coming back from death had erased the last lingering doubts on Vanion’s part. He did not mind what the whole of Styricum or the Elenes would think of them, but how would it affect Sephrenia? How would it affect her standing amongst the other High-Priests of Styricum? Aphrael was a thief herself and that certainly reflected on her moral views, but Sephrenia’s morals were much more rigid. Come to think of it, it was entirely possible Aphrael had stolen Vanion from the Elene God, and neither Vanion himself nor his God had noticed.

  
Vanion rubbed his face in sudden frustration. To have the revelation that he may have become stolen property without his knowledge, while trying to gather his courage to talk about his feelings to the one that held his heart, was not what he had ordered. Not that he had asked for any of this. If he had known where he would end up when he signed up as a novice in the Pandion motherhouse, would he have changed his mind? He honestly didn’t know.

  
Vanion’s internal debate was interrupted when the door in front of him was pulled open. Sephrenia was standing at the doorway, looking amused.

  
“You have been waiting there for ten minutes now. I thought it might be best to check you had not been turned to a statue for some reason. I know Aphrael likes you, but she can be mischievous at times. Do come in.” Sephrenia stood aside, waiting for Vanion to step in before closing the door. The click from the lock resounded in Vanion’s ears loud like church bells.

  
Sephrenia smiled at him. Her smile was both affectionate and happy, lacking the strain he had so often seen in it during the last few years. “I’m glad you are looking so fit and fine today, Vanion. Did you have any pressing issue or is this merely a social call?”

  
“I —.” Words failing him for the moment, Vanion lowered himself on one knee. Looking up at the beautiful woman in front of him, the only one he had ever given his heart to, he forced himself to speak. “I have known you since I was an innocent young novice at the Order. You have seen me grow from that boy to the old man I am now, with gray hairs and wrinkles in my face. Unlike me, you have stayed as bright and beautiful as the day I first met you.” Vanion took a deep breath, gathering his courage. “I know you must have been aware of my growing feelings for you when I was just one of your students, and even more so later. I am sure I was not the first Knight ever to have feelings for you that are not deemed acceptable, but I learned to live with them. If there is one thing I have learned during my life, it is that one cannot force the feelings in one’s heart. During the years of our working together, I thought you may have developed some feelings towards me, but I never wanted to ask or even voice my thoughts out loud.”

  
“However, after I practically died and you brought me back, we are in a different place from before. I am no longer the head of the Order, maybe not even a Knight, just a man. A man that has some very deep feelings for you." He resisted the urge to look down, instead steadily keeping his gaze at Sephrenia. “I know any kind of relationship between the two of us would be looked upon as almost an abomination by both of our people, but I have gone past the point where I would care about anyone else’s thoughts. If you have the kind of feelings for me as I suspect - if there is any chance for us to be together for the years I do have left to live, please tell me. If I have thought wrong, and your feelings for me are those of a friend and not more, I understand that too, and this is the last time I will ever approach you with this. But I would have you know, I love you with all my heart, Sephrenia, and I always will. Nothing will ever change that.”

  
During his speech, Sephrenia’s eyes had first gone round of shock, but then her face had take an undecipherable look, morphing finally to affectionate. In the end, she was smiling radiantly to Vanion, with tears in her eyes.

  
“Oh, Vanion. You. Come here.” She took his offered hand and tugged to pull him up. She put her hands on his face. “Of course I love you, you impossible man,” she whispered. The next thing he knew, her soft lips were on his, and the world around them ceased to exist. 


End file.
